Can't Catch Me Now

Album

Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the (soundtrack)

Label

Geffen Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Composer(s)

Olivia RodrigoDan Nigro

Entered Chart

Nov 18, 2023

Peak Date

Nov 18, 2023

Olivia Rodrigo recorded "Can't Catch Me Now" for the dystopian science fiction action film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. It's the fifth installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film is based on the 2020 novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. A prequel set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, its plot traces the rise of Panem's tyrant-in-the-making, Coriolanus Snow, and his fateful entanglement with Hunger Games tribute Lucy Gray Baird during the 10th Hunger Games. "Can't Catch Me Now" tells the haunting story of vengeful retribution from the point of view of Lucy Gray Baird. I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere But you can't catch me now Lucy Gray, the elusive force, will leave a lasting mark on Snow. Rodrigo wrote the somber folk-rock ballad with her producer, Daniel Nigro. The song was released on November 3, 2023, as the official soundtrack single for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Nigro played guitar, keyboards, bass, mellotron; Paul Cartwright conducted the string arrangement and plays viola and violin; and Missouri singer-songwriter Chappell Roan sang the background vocals. Paul Cartwright and Chappell Roan both worked on Rodrigo's Guts album, released a couple of months before "Can't Catch Me Now." Cartwright played violin and viola on "Vampire" and "Teenage Dream"; Roan sang backing vocals on "Lacy." The Leonn Ward-directed music video starts with Rodrigo playing guitar and singing the song in an isolated cabin before sprinting through a green field. The visual is interspersed with clips from the film. Leon Ward also shot the video for English singer-songwriter Celeste's "Stop This Flame." For Rodrigo, writing "Can't Catch Me Now" was more difficult than writing the songs on Sour and Guts. "It was a really fun challenge for me as a songwriter, because lots of my songs are kind of about my personal life," she told Entertainment Tonight. "Very diaristic and confessional." "It was a wonderful experience to try to write something from the character of Lucy Gray," Rodrigo continued. "A character that I feel very connected to."

There's blood on the side of the mountain
There's writing all over the wall
Shadows of us are still dancin'
In every room and every hall
There's snow fallin' over the city
You thought that it would wash away
The bitter taste of my fury
And all of the messes you made
Yeah, you think that you got away

But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze
My footsteps on the ground
You'll see my face in every place
But you can't catch me now
Through wading grass, the months will pass
You'll feel it all around
I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere
But you can't catch me now
No, you can't catch me now

Bet you thought I'd never do it
Thought it'd go over my head
I bet you figured I'd pass with the winter
Be somethin' easy to forget
Oh, you think I'm gone 'cause I left

But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze
My footsteps on the ground
You'll see my face in every place
But you can't catch me now
Through wading grass, the months will pass
You'll feel it all around
I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere
But you can't catch me now
No, you can't catch me now

Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh

You can't, you can't catch me now
I'm comin' like a storm into your town
You can't, you can't catch me now
I'm higher than the hopes that you brought down
You can't, you can't catch me now
I'm comin' like a storm into your town
You can't, you can't catch me now
I'm higher than the hopes that you brought down
You can't, you can't catch me now
I'm comin' like a storm into your town
You can't, you can't catch me now
You can't, you can't, you can't

There's blood on the side of the mountain
It's turning a new shade of red
Yeah, sometimes the fire you founded
Don't burn the way you'd expect
Yeah, you thought that this was the end